In November last Mr. Chetram Singh, the Guyana Cricket Board President assuaged my fears that Guyana's World Cup bid was going nowhere and that it did not seem very likely that we would have a stadium ready for 2007.
One month later the initial plans for the stadium was revealed in a rather unglamorous and tacky ceremony in the very ordinary ambience of the Carifesta Sports Club. Immediately my fears, previously allayed by Mr. Singh, were once again heightened. Here it was that the single biggest project ever to be endeavored in the history of sports in Guyana was being launched without any fanfare, without any glitz and glamour as it fully deserves. Since no movie industry exists in Guyana and since theatre has been reduced to a few poorly written and executed plays, beyond Oteisha, we have very little sense of drama and theatrics.
I hope you gather by now that I was disappointed and personally hurt at the manner in which this project launch was hastily glossed over as if it were more of a pain to do than a genuine commitment.
The opportunities for redemption though have not all escaped for Mr. Singh and yourself Madame Minister as you chair Guyana's Bid Committee. It is good that the design unveiled is only an 'initial one' and that you and your team will be responsible for developing it further.
I do not wish to direct your work, Lord knows I would prove most incompetent at such a task but I wish to offer some suggestions which your team may find useful.
The general plans seem to have captured the major aspects tidily and logically. But being a natural stickler for getting the finer details right, some things bother me. Details such as seating in the players' gallery, the type of fencing to separate the fans from the field, the accommodations in the media center, the type and style of the seating in the stands, the number of entrances and exits to stands and other such seemingly frivolous matters which are only recognized after they have been improperly designed and built.
My experiences with the poor quality of these across the Caribbean have been too many and diverse and I hope that they are not repeated in the stadium we build.
Take, for example, the seats in the stands in the second newest international venue in the Caribbean, at the Queens Park Oval, Grenada. Those were poorly designed, making it uncomfortable for individuals particularly males to sit in them. At the front of the seat, in the very middle, where most men need the space for obvious reasons the seats curve up into an prickly bump which many fans have complained about.
At this same stadium the turnstiles are so narrow you need to be on a protracted Jenny Craig programme to pass through. And trying to buy tickets at the solitary and inadequate ticket booth is more like talking to the bathroom wall.
It was reported that in the Providence stadium the players area will be to the south while the VIP and Media Center will be on the north. This may seem proper but can be troublesome.
At Bourda, Kensington Oval, Sabina Park and the most modern and highly acclaimed Beause-jour Stadium in St Lucia hospitality boxes are included in the same building that house the media. It may seem like a non-issue but ask any journalist of the confusion and complication of using one entrance and exit for these two groups. It can end in utter chaos especially when the television crew needs clear space to shuttle their equipment and other things around in an unhindered manner.
I have had more than an ordinary number of inexcusably inconvenient experiences as a result. For example during the last Test match at the Kensington Oval a few heavily intoxicated Australian fans found their way unimpeded into the media center and began occupying space as though they were from the BBC and several of the so-called VIP guests wander up to the media center and occupy the work area of journalists on the basis of them being `VIPs'. I have even seen Prime Ministers indulging in this tactless and rude act.
I am also a bit concerned by the fact that this stadium is being designed by Indians. My fear is as a result of what I saw on television the last time the West Indies toured India. I am aware of the boast by the two Indian 'experts' that the stadium would meet international standards. However as Marlon Samuels was blasting his famous hundred at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Vijayawada I saw players sitting in simple plastic chairs under a tent by the boundary as if it were a club match. I get worried when I see players now luxuriously lounging in executive-type, cushioned, leather chairs in South Africa, home of the last World Cup.
So I would really like to know, as should all Guyanese, if the Indian experts think that those plastic chairs and party tents constitute `international standard', after all the Indira Gandhi Stadium is an 'international' venue.
On that same tour I saw Indian fans sitting on draconian wooden benches and struggling to watch the cricket through mesh fences more suited to cordoning off pigs than people.
The Beausejour Stadium does ingenuously overcome the problem of spectators rushing onto the field. As is the case with more reputable venues in the wider world the stands are raised thereby allowing fans to watch cricket without the visible obstruction of a fence or poles as is the case with every stand at Bourda. To access the field fans would have to jump for about 12 feet and risk injuring themselves in the process.
To date I cannot recall anyone rushing onto the field at Beausejour as they have done at Bourda and elsewhere which have those hideous mesh fences.
And will our stadium be based on Indian ideas or will you ensure that inasmuch as it is a world class facility that it incorporates a unique Caribbean and Guyanese flavour?
When visitors come to the Caribbean for cricket there is one thing that is primary in their minds and that is the party.
The Red Stripe Mound, Chickies and the Trini Posse Stand are now world famous and every visitor expects to have a rollicking time in the party stands of the Caribbean. Will our stadium have one of those or will we be more English and Indian in our design, building tiered monstrosities while we neglect our own culture?
The absence of a party stand can turn away many potential visitors thereby robbing your colleague Minister Mansoor Nadir of an ideal opportunity to allow our eco tourism product to truly take off.
I am not saying that the Indians cannot do a good job as in Eden Gardens they have one of the finest cricket grounds in the world but we must be careful that the details of what they plan to build be sorted out before even a bag of cement is purchased.
You also said that the World Cup Board will be established and that "it will comprise stakeholders from all segments of society of oversee the entire process."
I am eternally distrustful of such sweeping statements as often they translate into a few token positions for those who have been obsequiously generous in their praise for the status quo.
People who oversee processes should be the ones who will blow the whistle when things begin to go awry and not simply report glowingly so that you and your team can be happy and unbothered. So please Madame Minister, please select your watchdogs carefully.
Your advisors too, should be selected not on the basis of them being those who will confirm and agree but those who will offer meaningful ideas no matter how those ideas may contradict your own. Individuals such as our own Mr. Joseph æRedsÆ and Mr. Tony Cozier who have covered cricket at every international venue in the world for over 40 years each can be useful guides in ensuring that the media center is not thoughtlessly designed as is the case with every media center in the Caribbean including the one at the ultra-modern Beausejour.
There is also a certain guy who it the only Guyanese to have worked as the media liaison for four West Indies series at all of the international venues in the Caribbean and I am sure that he too can offer some free functional guidelines.
For starters journalists should not have to sit in the scorching sun all day long as is the case in Grenada. Or have to hunt for food as sadly obtains at Bourda and Sabina Park. Or be jostling for seats like crabs in a crowded barrel as is the case at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad and Arnos Vales in St Vincent.
And finally Madame Minister pay no attention to those detractors who have argued that building a new stadium is a waste of time as it will amount to nothing but a white elephant. This is utterly and obscenely brainless. These people behave as though after the World Cup cricket will simply disappear. I am particularly keen on a new and world class facility not so much for the World Cup but for after the major event.
I am desirous of the young cricketers, officials, media personnel and most importantly fans enjoying quality facilities which have too long been denied them. There will still be school cricket, under 19 cricket, women's cricket, club cricket, first, second and third division cricket, inter county cricket, regional cricket and indeed international cricket which will continue and return to Guyana annually. The new venue will certainly be a boost in hosting these.
If we do not ensure that the new stadium is built now, we may never get one in this country for God knows how long and that can very well mean that international cricket may not see our shores for quite some time.
Madame Minister, you and Mr. Singh you not have felt that fanfare was needed at the initial launching but please let us have something worthy of celebration come 2007.